


Run in the wind

by Steangine



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Stride AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-31 20:08:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6485758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steangine/pseuds/Steangine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aomine Daiki is one of the best stride runners, so good at it that strides aren't fun anymore for him. Then, at the qualifications for the Interhigh, he meets a very particular opponent... [AoKuro - Prince of stride AU]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Run in the wind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aerlus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aerlus/gifts).



> This a birthday present for Aerlus. I'm sorry it arrived a bit late, I hope you'll enjoy it!

Aomine stared at the road in front of him. He didn’t know the path, he didn’t know what gimmicks he would have faced and he didn’t want to know: the surprise of the route was the last thing of stride that gave him enough will to continue. But that was also slowly fading. He yawned and suddenly his relationer’s sharp voice ringed inside his right ear.

_ “Dai-chan! Did you get to your starting point already?” _

“I’m going, I’m going… geez Satsuki. Even if they start it’ll take a while before Sakurai gets there.”

_ “Don’t waste any time and just go there already!” _

Aomine didn’t change his slow pace and enjoyed the view of the birds flying in the sky without a single blow of wind. It was a hot day, he would have rather sat down under one of those trees with a drink in a hand and a gravure magazine in the other. Yet he was still participating in stride competitions and getting more bored and bored as the days went on.

“You were making a fuss but I arrived first. My challenger isn’t here.”

As Momoi Satsuki, Touou’s relationer, heard it, she spied on the screen of the Seirin team: the one who would have run with Aomine was already there.

_ “Dai-chan, you are wrong.” _

“What? I’m not wrong! I am alo–Woah!!!”

Walking around, Aomine hit against something too soft to be a part of the street and he had a sudden vision of a boy in front of him.

“Since when were you here?!”

“When you arrived I was already here.”

“Oh…”

Aomine remembered he was the short one from the Seirin team that no one noticed until he talked to point out his presence. Yet he looked so insignificant that he had already forgotten him just to remember he existed at that starting line.

Usually his challengers showed one among three different moods: or they started blabbering they would have won and got full of themselves before Aomine dashed in front of them, or they tried not to care about him and failed miserably, or they were actually so nervous they didn’t want to talk to him.  
That boy belonged to the third category; he wasn’t going to and fro, but on his face there was a determined expression and he was controlling his breath. From time to time he touched the earphone and he closed his eyes before exhaling a deep sigh.

_ “It started!” _

Aomine didn’t receive a particular vibe from the announce that echoed inside his ear. The boy turned back, as if he was able to see the start, and grabbed his left wrist; his eyebrows contracted in a more concentrated expression and he lined up his feet before the line. Aomine recognized in him all the signs of excitement he could barely remember.

“Tch.” He snorted with grinding teeth and didn’t notice the boy gave him a glance.

Satsuki’s voice in his ear kept his attention on the stride.

_ “Imayoshi-san! Keep your pace!” _

_ “Susa-san! We have the lead, 2.3 seconds!” _

_ “Susa-san! Set!” _

_ “Sakurai-kun! We have the lead, 1.4 seconds!” _

_ “Sakurai-kun! Set!” _

They were getting closer.

_ “Dai–Aomine-kun! Sakurai is behind! 2.7 seconds! Get ready!” _

That idiot, he probably lost his mind because of his opponent. Aomine didn’t notice he pronounced the insult aloud, with a bored tone of voice, showing how much he wasn’t caring about the stride and about his teammate. The boy of the other team -man, he didn’t even remember they pronounced his name- positioned himself to start the run. He was small, maybe he had a nice dash or he was good in short distances.

As expected, his opponent started before. And Aomine felt so disappointed he couldn’t help but stare as his slow back: his dash barely look like a good start and his speed was probably more appropriate to a marathon.

“They’re worse than I thought…”

He was so concentrated on his own commiseration that he bypassed Momoi’s first start.

_ “DAI-CHAN!!! GO!!! YOU TURNED OFF YOUR DEVICE AGAIN???” _

Her voice exploded inside his head and Aomine felt like his start was a bit slack, however after the first steps of adjustment he increased his pace and in few seconds he was already ahead his opponent.

_ “Dai-chan, be careful because ahead there is a sh–“ _

“Satsuki let me run! I already know!”

_ “No! You didn’t hear the briefing and–“ _

“I don’t need it!”

_ “Dai-cha–“ _

Aomine turned off his ear-bud and took a glance behind.

“Geez. What is she worrying about? I’m ahead and I can’t see that shrimp anymore.”

He didn’t increase his speed as he took the part of the course with more gimmick. If he had to run, at least he could have had a bit of fun in doing it. From time to time, as he twirled in the air giving the audience the impression he was about to fly, he looked behind, but there was no one in his sight.

“As always....”

Aomine recognized the beginning of the change zone and rose his hand to wait for Wakamatsu to slap it. Fretting steps echoed behind him, followed by an angered voice that got louder and closer at every word.

“Why did you turn off your device?!”

Wakamatsu hit the palm of his hand and it was like a button had been hit: Aomine slowed down until he stopped in the middle of the street. He didn’t fall down to recover his breath, because there wasn’t so much breath to recover: in the end he didn’t give all he could, again. But he was sweaty, it was hot and he hoped there was some wind to refresh him.

“Man… this is boring.”

Then he felt it.

It was tiny, he barely perceived the cold touching his wet skin. However a breath of wind blew towards him.

Aomine turned and was almost scared by a read head dashing near him, following Wakamatsu’s path. A view he saw other times, so he didn’t know why he was feeling a strange sensation in his stomach, as if a feeble warmth was itching it. Was that read head that disappeared around the corner?

Or–

_ *thump* _

Something fell behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and realized that something was a someone, the boy that raced against him.  
He was curled on his right side, breathing heavily among the violent coughs he wasn’t able to stop; his body was covered in bruises and some of them were bleeding. Some stains of blood dirtied the tar right in front of his face.

“Hey!!!”

Aomine reacted to the shock and kneeled next to him. Even if he wanted to do something, he didn’t know how to move him without the fear of hurting him more.

“What the hell happened?!”

Among the coughs he recognized a laugh. Maybe he had hit his head.

“I–I broke… the ear-bud.” Then the boy sniffed and the laughs became broken sobs. “If I–“ He coughed and spat some drops of blood. “–jumped further. I would–“

“But you’ve been great!”

Aomine talked without thinking. The boy raised his head and smiled with red lips.

“Coach… will kill me.”

Those were the last words Aomine heard him saying before a group of assistants pushed him aside to group around the injured boy.

The minutes he spent staring at the paramedics mechanically leaning him on a gurney were more similar to a dream to Aomine that to reality. When the ambulance left with sirens blaring looked like nothing happened and the stains of blood on the street were almost unnoticeable and similar to drops of water due to evaporate.

Aomine walked back to his team’s zone and turned on his device. Momoi suddenly spoke.

_ “Aomine-kun we won! But where are you now???” _

 

 

Kuroko Tetsuya stared at the sunset outside the window.

That day he had received more visits than he predicted. His grandma stayed at his side until his parents arrived and needed the _authority_ of the doctor to allow them to bring her away with her consent – she didn’t want to leave his dear grandson alone. Then his friends from the school library committee brought him some books, but left as soon as the male stride team coach of Seirin high school, Aida Riko, entered the room with the intent of killing Kuroko. Luckily the rest of the team calmed her down and they stayed until the nurse politely asked them to go away.

Considering he fell in the ditch he believed he could overcame with a jump, Kuroko could have injured himself worse: he was full of scratches, some of them were deep wounds so slight scars would have remained, and incredibly didn’t have any fracture or internal wound. Yet, since he fainted and it took some time to wake him up, the doctors wanted to observe him and make the remaining exams in the morning.

Kuroko closed the book on his lap and abandoned himself at the softness of the pillow. He felt a bit nauseous if he bended forward his head for a long time, so renounced to end the chapter.

The door opened and he said “Doctor.” instinctively. However it wasn’t the doctor. It was Aomine Daiki.

“Uhm, hi.”

He looked a bit embarrassed, but Kuroko bypassed any visual information as he was trying to recollect the pieces of his meager interaction with him at the stride in order to understand why he was there.

“How… how are you?”

“I’m fine. Thank you.”

Aomine massaged his neck and his eyes wandered around the room, then they focused on the little transparent bag he had in his hands. It looked like Aomine had just realized he had brought something with him as he started with an “Ah.” before getting closer to the bed.

“I brought you these. I didn’t know what you could like. I mean, flowers are kinda…” He didn’t find the words to end the sentence. “So my mom suggested me biscuits so… here it is. She made them.”

He put them on the right corner of the night table and the package almost fell, but Aomine had reflexes good enough to grab them.

“Sorry.”

Kuroko shook his head. “Don’t worry. Thank you.”

Everything was strange.

Kuroko only knew Aomine from the magazines and the strides he had eagerly followed from when he discovered that sport and he created in his mind a precise idea of him: the fastest runner who could face every gimmick with such naturalness that it looked like he was born to do that sport, a boy who was so self-confident that he always took the most difficult path but was never left behind by his opponents. Basically Aomine Daiki, in Kuroko’s eyes, was like a professional sportsman, an adult who always knew what to do. However now Aomine was in his hospital room and was acting like a clumsy and embarrassed teenager, and Kuroko felt closer to him.

“I’ll taste one.”

As Kuroko untied the ribbon, the sweet scent of the biscuits reached his nose and he had a sudden desire of eating them.

“Eat one too.”

Aomine looked hesitant, but he took one. Kuroko then closed the bag to avoid spoiling his dinner with biscuits.

“They’re good.”

Chocolate wasn’t really his favorite, yet they were tasty.

“Thank you. I mean, I didn’t make them but…”

The silence between them was more embarrassing than Aomine could have predicted. He quite knew what he wanted to do, but whenever his eyes met Kuroko, he diverted them and faked an interest to the hospital’s machinery.

“They told me you won, congratulation.”

Aomine jolted. “Yes. But you still have two races and can qualify for the Interhigh.”

“My teammates will manage for sure. I didn’t have to participate in this race, but half of the team caught the chicken pox.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I also practice with them but usually I’m the relationer.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I entered the team to run but I’ve not stamina nor I’m fast enough. It was a desperate decision putting me in the stride.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

The looked at each other.

“But you’ve been great.”

Aomine remembered they barely won for half second, probably everything was due to the read head, as Momoi kept repeating she was afraid until the end he would have reached and overcame Wakamatsu.

“No, I haven’t.”

“Yes, you have. After the race I checked the shortcut and that was a difficult path to go through.” Even if he would have managed to face it, but he kept that thought for himself.

If Aomine had only listened to the briefing he would have guessed that his opponent had taken that route as a last chance. Maybe he would have taken the race more seriously. Maybe. He regretted he looked down on him and, if what he had said was true, probably they wouldn’t have faced anymore.

“Thank you, but I don’t need to be comforted.”

“I’m not comforting you. I really admire you!”

Aomine realized too late what he had just said and blood rushed to his face. Kuroko stared at him with a puzzled expression and observed his rigid moves as Aomine made a tiny bow and retreated towards the door with few steps.

“Now I have to come back home. Recover fast.”

“Thank you…” Before Aomine grabbed the handle Kuroko spoke again. “I am Kuroko Tetsuya. Nice to meet you.”

Aomine knew his name, he asked Momoi to tell him and read it on the label outside the room.

“I’m Aomine Daiki. Nice to meet you too.” He scratched his head. “If we exchange e-mails you can tell me how your qualifications are going.”

Aomine waited on tenterhooks. Kuroko nodded.

“Yes, I’d be glad to.”

They smiled at each other.

 

 

Seirin didn’t manage to qualify for the Interhigh as half of the team was still ill or injured -Kuroko- the day of the next race. Rakuzan won the Interhigh but after few days every school was focused on the winter event.

Aomine observed Kuroko jumping from one gimmick to the other. He took a sip of water.

“Tetsu, you are really good in cramped gimmicks.”

Kuroko hadn’t much stamina or skills, yet he had a strong will. Moreover his weight was light but he developed muscles,so he was favored in routes with cramped gimmicks, as his jumps didn’t have much energy but his build made him move faster. Unfortunately that kind of routes were quite rare.

“Do you think so?”

Aomine liked Kuroko’s expression when he received some compliments from him. It was a different happiness than when somebody else complimented him, even if Aomine didn’t know how to explain in what his smile and sparkling eyes were different.

“Yes. Why should I lie?”

Kuroko sat down on the metal bar, swinging his feet a little, and took the bottle Aomine handed him. The fresh taste of the water after a sweaty session of training was fantastic.

“Probably the coach will get mad at me when she’ll discover I didn’t rest today.”

“When?”

“Because she surely will.”

Kuroko drank again and Aomine’s brain processed a very embarrassing thought. __

_ –Ah… indirect kiss.– _

“Aomine-kun, are you okay? Your face is red.”

Aomine shook his head. “Nothing.” He climbed the metal structure and started jumping from one base to the other.

Kuroko cleaned his lips with the wristband and looked at the bottle.

_ –An indirect kiss?– _

Another kind of warmth added to the sweat that was burning his cheeks.

**Author's Note:**

> The story originally stopped with Aomine asking Kuroko for his e-mail, but the indirect kiss thing was too cute not to add it.


End file.
